Category: Kids - LONG ISLAND NEWBORN AND PET PHOTOGRAPHER - LAURA PEA PHOTOGRAPHY

James’ First Birthday and Family Session

7/24/2022

I first photographed this beautiful family in 2018, and every year since then I've had the honor of being a part of documenting their family's memories. When I dropped off their products from this session, mom Sarah showed me the many places around their house where my photos are displayed. It meant so much to me to see that!

This last session was done to commemorate their youngest James' first birthday. We decided to do it at a local dog-friendly park so that their furry eldest child (Benjamin Franklin, a consummate professional), could join in on the fun. James takes after his family in that he can pose with the best of them. We joked that with his suit and bow tie, he looked like an adorable tiny Godfather.

Older twin siblings Nathaniel and Caroline blew me away with how well they behaved. They were about 2 months away from turning 4 at the time we shot this, and they listened so well, I was thoroughly impressed! As long as we allowed them to do the occasional silly shot, they were game for anything. You'll see one of those shots in the slideshow below. I love showing these types of photos to clients because (though I am -AHEM- a serious artist and professional businesswoman) I am at heart a very silly person myself.

As a small business owner, when clients come back repeatedly, it's such a gift. To have clients who book every year and really show their appreciation for what you do, I can't tell you how much it means! Here are some of my favorite shots from our session!

Get in touch to book your session today! Email me at laurapeaphotography@gmail.com
or call (631)256-7476.

Family Session at Islip Grange

12/21/2021

This session was particularly fun because it was of one of my best friends Lauren’s family! I’ve been taking photos of them all the way back to her engagement session with her husband Mike and I’ve had the pleasure of capturing a lot of their memories as they grew their family!

Beautiful Addison has such a sweet disposition and little Stella already has a big and bright personality! I love these girls! It was so fun following them around while they explored Islip Grange and all its adorable historic buildings.

Here are some of my favorite shots from our session!

Get in touch to book your session today! Email me at laurapeaphotography@gmail.com or call (631)256-7476.

Owen's Birthday and Family Session at Prosser Pines

12/16/2021

I met this awesome family years ago at my first pet portrait program at Islip Public Library. I've been lucky enough to have many shoots with them since then and they're always so much fun! This session was booked to celebrate son Owen's 10th birthday (he was only 5 when I met him the first time)! Mom, Dad and his two little sisters joined in so we could also capture some great family shots during our hike in the gorgeous woods of Prosser Pines! We got a beautiful fall day for our shoot and the kids had a great time exploring the trails and fallen branch tents that are scattered throughout the park.

I'm going to climb on my soapbox for just one moment here, so please bear with me. Prosser Pines is a really popular spot for photographers; there are even some times when I'm shooting there that I have to make sure there are no other shoots going on in the background of my photo (and sometimes even Photoshop them out if I can't avoid them)! Last year in October I shot there and there was litter left from photographers setting off smoke bombs during their sessions. I was happy to see that this time there was no trace of anything like that. It's so important for us photographers to respect the places where we shoot. Not only is it just common decency, if we don't, we might not be allowed to keep using those locations. If you visit a park or nature preserve, remember to take out what you bring in!

Ok, rant over, back to these amazing folks! The best feedback I can get from my clients is not reviews (although those help!), it's the fact that they return to me for more sessions. That tells me that I did my job, that they love their photos, and that they can stand me telling corny jokes or doing my silly noises to make their kids smile! As a small business owner, I appreciate every single client who books with me because they allow me to live my dream, but clients who come back year after year are something so special to me and I can't thank them enough!

Without further ado, here are some of my favorite shots from this very fun session!

Get in touch to book your session today! Email me at laurapeaphotography@gmail.com
or call (631)256-7476.

Seth's Christmas and Family Session at Prosser Pines

12/21/2020

My sister, brother in law and my nephew accompanied me on my shoot at Prosser Pines with our friend Lauren this year. When they were there they took a walk around the preserve and afterwards said "Ok, can we do our Christmas photos here too?" Of course! It's such a beautiful spot for it!

Lisa had the idea to use Seth's Little Tikes car in the photos and put some of my little tree props on it as if Seth had gone to the woods to chop down his own tree. The problem was that his car is green with yellow dinosaur scales! But that's where Aunt Laura's years of Photoshop practice came into play. It was more time-consuming than my normal edits but I was able to turn his car red to match her vision for the photos. We wrapped a string of fairy lights around it to complete the look and Seth was happy to pose in it, because he loves his dino car! He wouldn't wear the trapper hat we brought for him, but that's ok because they still came out super cute.

We also took some sweet family shots of the three of them, but most of the photos were about Seth, because he's obviously the star!

Here are some of my favorite photos from our session!

Happy Holidays!

Dominic's Christmas & Family Session at Prosser Pines

12/9/2020

You might remember Dominic's adorable session at the Stony Brook duck pond recently for his second birthday. I was so happy to get this little guy in front of my camera again for a Christmas and family session at Prosser Pines in Middle Island! His mom brought a super cute mailbox and a letter so Dominic could send out his wishlist to Santa. I hope he gets everything he wants!

We did some individual photos of the handsome boy and a lot of family shots too. The light was so beautiful that day in Prosser Pines and we had a lot of fun exploring the trails, despite one alarming incident where Dominic dropped his Larabar snack on the forest floor and was NOT PLEASED when it got taken away from him! I feel you, buddy.

There are these cool tree structures in the Pines that Dominic loved to dart in and out of. I'm not really sure what the story is behind those or who made them, but they look pretty cool. If anyone has any insight into how those came about, comment below because I'd love to know. Google has failed me and I'm curious!

Here are some of my favorite photos from our session!

Get in touch here to book your session!

Lily's Christmas Photos 2020

12/5/2020

Lily's parents Brandon and Richelle are friends of mine, so it's always nice to photograph her because I get to hang out with her awesome mom and dad too! I haven't seen them in a long time because they live in Connecticut and because of this darn pandemic we've all been dealing with for what feels like forever. But we got together for a socially distanced photo session where Lily could have her run of the yard and stretch those legs out after being in the car for so long!

Lily wasn't super interested in sitting on any of my little rugs. She wanted to RUN. She was having a blast finding acorns, holding up gigantic sticks and ripping leaves off the trees. At one point Brandon said "These are going to be the weirdest Christmas photos ever", but you know what? I've been a photographer long enough to know that a 2 year old just does their thing and I have to be quick enough to capture the smiles when they happen! Luckily from years of experience and from photographing my nephew Seth so much, I have a very quick trigger finger!

After she was done exploring the grounds to her heart's content, I finally lucked out with a prop she was interested in. My trusty Radio Flyer wagon with a tree plopped inside of it never goes wrong. She had lots of fun pulling it around and also using it as an acorn receptacle. Whatever keeps them smiling for the camera is alright by me!

Here are some of my favorite photos from Lily's session!

Get in touch to book your session here!

Happy Thanksgiving! 2020

11/26/2020

In a year as hard as 2020 has been, it can be kind of hard to feel thankful. The year started off very rough for my family when my grandmother entered hospice care in January and we lost her in early February. Shortly after, the quarantine started and it seems like it's been a real downhill slope since then. But there have been bright spots this year, and there is still a lot to be thankful for.

Even though I haven't seen much of my family this year, we're all still relatively healthy and most have managed to stay virus-free. My friends and I have managed to stay connected digitally instead of in person, and I'm happy that they're only a text or a FaceTime away. Although this year will be so different than others when it comes to meeting for a Thanksgiving celebration, I look forward to next year when we can hopefully get together without any fear.

Since March I've been staying with my sister Lisa and her family to watch my nephew Seth during the week so my mother who usually watches him won't be exposed to any germs. Even though it means we have to stay six feet from my mom, I'm grateful I get to be with Seth every day and that I'm quarantining with my sister who's my best friend, even if we've been driving each other a little crazy. I'm so thankful I have my girl Gracey here with me. She's the most affectionate and silly little dog and I love her so much.

I'm thankful my business has survived a year that has been the death of many small businesses. I had so many inquiries and reschedules from the lockdown, that I booked up really quickly for the year once I was able to work again. I've worked with so many wonderful clients this year and I also created so much personal work with the downtime I had, which was so invigorating creatively.

We didn't go out much at all this year, even after the final phases of reopening happened. We've been very cautious. But we did go out one day after taking Seth's Christmas and some family photos at Prosser Pines to visit Fink's Country Farm. We thought he'd be overjoyed to see all the animals, but his favorite part was actually the pumpkins. He has a real affinity for them like his Aunt Laura and it was so adorable to see how happy he was running around and patting all the pumpkins in sight. That's a memory I'm thankful for. I hope you all have a safe and happy holiday!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Stella's First Christmas & Family Session at Prosser Pines

11/22/2020

Little Stella is so smiley because this year is her First Christmas! Actually, she's just always smiley because she's a super happy baby. But she was really happy to go with her big sister Addison and her mom Lauren (one of my besties) and dad Mike to Prosser Pines this year for family photos!

Every year there seems to be one spot that get super popular with my clients. One year it was Blydenburgh Park, another year it was Islip Grange. This year it was definitely Prosser Pines in Middle Island. I always give clients a few suggestions based on the kind of backdrop they want, and this spot was the big hit this year. I think maybe because it's in the woods where we can spread out and there aren't a lot of people there, so it turns out to be a good venue for photography in the age of COVID-19.

When we met for this session, the leaves were at their most beautiful I think. The color of the fall foliage was so gorgeous, and the girls did such a good job!
Here are some of my favorite photos from our session!

Get in touch here to schedule your session!

Happy Halloween!

10/31/2020

Halloween is absolutely my favorite holiday. Even though I couldn't have my annual spooky party this year and the holiday looked a lot different than usual, it was still fun to dress up Seth and Gracey and take some photos. We didn't have even one trick or treater this year, so I'm going to be suffering from a sugar high for the next few weeks while I eat through all the candy!

I bought Gracey's costume waaaay back in May when I saw it on clearance at Target. I loved dinosaurs when I was a kid, so I was excited to dress her up as a little Triceratops. She actually cooperated very well for her photos. There were a good few treats involved! My favorite one is a shot I caught just as she was licking her lips. She looks like a fearsome little beast (which she is sometimes) haha!
Here's my little Gracey girl!

Seth's costume was thrown together a little quicker! My sister Lisa didn't want to spend a bunch of money on a costume he was going to wear once, since we weren't going to bring him trick or treating this year. So she decided to dress him as cousin Eddie from the movie National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, one of her and my brother in law Will's favorite movies. She bought him a robe and a hat, figuring that he could wear both of those again after Halloween! We put him in a pair of rainboots and went up to my studio for a few photos! If you've ever tried to take photos of a toddler in a hat, you know that the first thing they usually want to do is rip it right off their head. But I've found through much trial and error that if you slip that hat on just as you give them something else to hold and take their mind off of it, you'll be able to keep it on a lot longer. We gave him a little cup to hold and it completely distracted him from the hat!

Happy Halloween everyone!

Dominic's 2nd Birthday

10/8/2020

Dominic turns 2 this month! This little cutie is the son of one of my best friends Dina and her husband Mike, and he has always rocked his photo sessions with me, from newborn to 1 year to Christmas photos to now! He's such a happy little guy and he's got a great smile.

For this year's photos, we decided to visit the duck pond in Stony Brook for some socially distanced photos. Dominic loves to visit the geese by the water near his house, so I had a feeling he would enjoy the pond, with its large population of ducks, geese, pigeons and swans. I've shot a lot of sessions at the duck pond and I'm always cautious when I go there because of an incident I had there once, involving a close encounter with a swan. Thankfully the swans kept their distance that day, but the ducks, geese and pigeons practically swarmed us at one point because a passerby had the unfortunate idea to bring out some food! Dominic loved it though and he had a fun time following around the birds, climbing onto stumps and throwing things in the water. Ah, throwing. A two year old boy's favorite past time.

Here are some of my favorite photos from Dominic's 2nd birthday session!

Want your own fun visit to the duck pond? Email me at laurapeaphotography@gmail.com or call me at (631)256-7476.